"Being a woman nuclear scientist options after a PhD"
Thursday, Oct. 30th (5-6:30 PM)
The Arizona Historical Society
(Across from the Marriott Hotel)
When I look around I see few people that look like me. Is it OK for me to pursue
an academic / research career?
Are University-based careers any more or less flexible for women
scientists than Laboratory-based careers?
Is it possible to have a career and a personal life?
This panel discussion will focus on the array of options for women scientists after
obtaining a PhD in nuclear science. The panel is composed of leading nuclear
scientists from universities, national laboratories, government and the private
sector. While the panel represents a wide variety in professional experiences
they also bring with them a variety of personal experiences. Questions from the
audience will be encouraged. This session is open to all.
Panelists:
Abigail Bickley
Graduate student, University of Maryland
Latifa Elouadrhirs
Research Scientist, Jefferson Lab
Barbara Jacak
Professor of Physics, SUNY Stony Brook
Elizabeth McCuthan
Graduate Student, Yale University
Ina Sarcevic
Professor of Physics, University of Arizona
Moderator:
Sherry J Yennello
Professor of Chemistry, Texas A&M University
Abigail Bickley
University of Maryland
Abigail Bickley graduated in 2000 from Dartmouth College where she majored in
Chemistry and minored in Physics. After attending Dartmouth Abby decided to pursue a
PhD at the University of Maryland, College Park. At the University of Maryland Abby is
conducting thesis research under Dr. Alice Mignerey, Department of Chemistry. She is a
member of the Phobos Collaboration and work at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Abby’s thesis will address particle and
antiparticle production in the RHIC collision environment. In particular, she is
interested in studying the centrality dependence of charged antiparticle to particle ratios
in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV.
Latifa Elouadrhirs
JLab
Latifa is a research scientist at JLab in Hall B as part of the CLAS collaboration.
Barbara Jacak
SUNY Stony Brook
Barbara V. Jacak is a Professor of Physics at Stony Brook, studying collisions of high
energy heavy ions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion collider. She is a member of the
PHENIX experiment, which consists of more than 400 collaborating physicists, and
studies nuclear matter at the temperature and density that existed the first microsecond
after the Big Bang. Barbara received her B.S. in Chemistry at University of California,
Berkeley and my Ph.D. in Chemical Physics at Michigan State University. After that she
spent 12 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, doing basic research in Nuclear
Physics. Barbara’s first 3 years at LANL were as an Oppenheimer Fellow, which she was
the first woman to win. Barbara went to Stony Brook in 1997, and have taught both
graduate and undergraduate classes as well as worked closely with many graduate
students.
Elizabeth McCuthan
Yale University
Originally from Connecticut, Elizabeth graduated with a B.A. in physics from Wellesley
College in 1999. After graduation, She spent two years at Mt. Holyoke College
organizing and teaching undergraduate physics laboratories. Currently, she is in her third
year of graduate study at Yale University, working towards a PhD in nuclear physics.
At Yale, Elizabeth is working with the experimental nuclear structure group on
gamma-ray spectroscopy. Her current project focuses on phase/shape transitions in low
energy nuclear structure. In particular, they have been looking at the applicability of a
new class of models, called critical point symmetries, which describe nuclei at the shape
transition point. By studying the properties of excited nuclear states (energies, transition
probabilities), they are trying to determine experimentally the locus of these phase
transitions.
Ina Sarcevic
University of Arizona
Ina Sarcevic is a Professor of Physics at the University of Arizona and a member of the
Theoretical Astrophysics Program at the University of Arizona. She received her B.Sc.
in Physics from the University of Sarajevo, former Yugoslavia, in 1981. She continued
graduate studies at the University of Minnesota and received her Ph.D. there in 1986.
From 1986-1988 she was a Director's Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National
Laboratory. She joined the faculty of the University of Arizona in 1988. She was a
visiting Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University in 1994. She was a member of
the Theoretical Division at CERN, Geneve, Switzerland, in 2002. Sarcevic's research
interests are in theoretical nuclear and high energy physics, revolving primarily around
quark-gluon substructure of nuclear matter and neutrino physics and astrophysics.
Sarcevic was a recipient of the Humboldt Fellowship.
Sherry Yennello
Texas A&M University
Professor of Chemistry, Texas A&M University. B.S. (Chemistry) 1985, B.S. (Physics)
1986, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Ph.D. 1990, Indiana University. Oak Ridge
Associate Universities Junior Faculty Enhancement Awardee 1993, NSF National Young
Investigator 1994, TAMU Center for Teaching Excellence Scholar 1995, Sigma Xi
Natioanl Young Investigator 2000, TAMU University Faculty Fellow 2000. Member
American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon.
Research interests in nuclear reaction mechanisms and radioactive beams.
Involved in helping to promote women at Texas A&M University. Past and present
positions include: WISE executive committee, WFN Steering committee (4 years as
President), College of Science Diversity committee, Women’s Week Chair, Faculty
Senate subcommittee on the Status of Women. Recipient of the Women’s Week Award
for Faculty (2001). Recently spent a year as the advocate for diversity in the Division of
Physics of the NSF while serving as a Program Director in Nuclear Physics.
This panel discussion was organized by the WECAN steering committee. It was
supported in part by the APS Division of Nuclear Physics and the APS Committee on the
Status of Women in Physics.
Ani Aprahamian
Betsy Beise
Jolie Cizewski
Bunny Clark
Barbara Jacak
Ina Sarcevic
Susan Seestrom
Sherry Yennello, Chair